Dadin walks free

The Supreme Court on Wednesday morning announced that the case against Ildar Dadin should be closed and the activist released from prison. 

Both the lawyers of Dadin and the general prosecutor demanded that the prison sentence is cancelled on the grounds that there «had been committed no crime», Meduza reports. 

According to the online newspaper, the court acknowledges Dadin’s right for rehabilitation.

Dadin is expected to walk out of the prison in Barnaul, south Siberia, on Thursday of Friday. His wife Anastasia Zotova confirms on her Facebook page that she already is on her way to meet him.

Ildar Dadin is the first person to be sentenced for violation of Article 212.1 in the Russian criminal code. Article 212.1 was adopted in July 2014. It describes «repeated violations of the rules of public gatherings».

He was arrested on 3 December 2015 and subsequently sentenced to three years of jail. The sentence was later reduced to 2,5 years. In September 2016, he was moved to penal colony No 7 in Segezha, Republic of Karelia.

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There, he was subjected to cruel treatment.

«Nastia, if you decide to publish the information about what is happening to me, then try to spread it as quickly as possible. That will increase my chances to stay alive», Dadin said in letter smuggled out of the prison in late 2016. 

«If they again start to torture me, beat me and rape me, I will hardly last more than a week», he said.

The reports stirred massive resonance both nationally and internationally and Dadin was in December 2016 transferred to the prison in Barnaul.